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Knight Foundation regrets paying Jonah Lehrer $20K

By Mackenzie Weinger

02/14/13 08:51 AM EST

The Knight Foundation says it regrets paying disgraced journalist Jonah Lehrer $20,000 to speak at a conference this week about his plagiarism scandal.

The Knight Foundation apologized Wednesday night after stirring controversy for shelling out a $20,000 speaking fee to Lehrer, who resigned from The New Yorker last year amid charges of plagiarism, fabrication and other journalistic misdeeds. “In retrospect, as a foundation that has long stood for quality journalism, paying a speaker’s fee was inappropriate,” the foundation wrote in a post on its website.

“Controversial speakers should have platforms, but Knight Foundation should not have put itself into a position tantamount to rewarding people who have violated the basic tenets of journalism,” the foundation wrote. “We regret our mistake.”

The foundation — which states on its website that it supports “transformational ideas that promote quality journalism” — wrote it should not have paid Lehrer the money “given our values.”

“The fee was not unusual for a well-known author to address a large conference. But it was simply not something Knight Foundation, given our values, should have paid,” the foundation wrote. “We continue to support journalism excellence in the digital age. And we do not want our foundation partners to think that journalism controversies are too hot for them to handle. Instead, we want to send the message that when things go wrong the best action is to admit the error and get back to work.”

In his speech, Lehrer focused on himself and repeatedly said he would establish guidelines — what he dubbed a “standard operating procedure” — to avoid plagiarizing in the future. “I don’t trust myself not to be arrogant,” Lehrer told the conference.

Lehrer was on stage for 46 minutes — which included his speech and a question and answer session — at the lunch where he scored the $20,000 fee.